A FRAIL pensioner lost her most treasured possession - her £500 engagement ring - to a heartless thief pretending to be a water board official.

Hilda Reason, an 87-year-old widow, fell victim to the intruder as she settled down to watch Coronation Street in her bungalow, in Longcot, near Faringdon, the village where she has lived all her life.

Mrs Reason, who is dependent on a walking frame, thought she heard her back door blow open but when she went to investigate she found the bogus official crawling around her kitchen floor claiming to be on an emergency call out.

The man, who remained bent over to hide his face, pushed her roughly against the fridge and turned the taps on before disappearing into the lounge. When Mrs Reason followed him, she found him still bent over on the floor between her chair and the sideboard and and asked him what he was doing.

The man left suddenly only minutes before one of Mrs Reason's regular carers arrived to see if everything was alright. She found £80 missing from her handbag and discovered her bedroom draws ransacked. A box, which had contained the diamond cluster engagement ring, bought by her late ex-soldier husband, Leslie, in 1955, was empty.

Mrs Reason agreed to speak to the Wantage and Grove Herald to alert other pensioners to be on their guard against bogus callers preying on the elderly.

She said she had only taken the ring off and set it aside for safe keeping because of the arthritis in her hands.

She said: "I'd had it all those years and now its gone, that's what makes me so upset."

Last week, Thames Valley Police launched a force-wide initiative, Operation Resolve, specifically aimed at reducing the number of distraction burglaries.

By attacking the problem in two ways - through prevention and detection - officers hope to make life safer for more vulnerable members of the community.

Elderly people will be visited at regular meeting places like day centres and social clubs and given advice on how to ensure they do not become victims themselves.

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